


The Mission is More Important than the Individual

by AFlameThatFlickersOutTooSoon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Gen, I cried writing this, Season six of Voltron killed me, i hate everything, post-season 6, why did I write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 18:23:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15006701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AFlameThatFlickersOutTooSoon/pseuds/AFlameThatFlickersOutTooSoon
Summary: ”I’m sorry.” He whispered, before finally letting go. The body fell, and Keith forced himself to look away.(Haha I hate myself. Season six of Voltron completely destroyed most of my soul, but I decided most wasn’t enough so I killed the rest by writing this.)





	The Mission is More Important than the Individual

**Author's Note:**

> At first in this fic I was trying to reference the actual dialogue. Then once Keith let go I gave up and just started bullshitting my way through it.
> 
> Cross-posted on quotev.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender.

_“Just let go, Keith. You don’t have to fight any more.”_

_”I will never give up on you. But more importantly, you can’t give up on yourself.”_

The words flash through Keith’s head as he tries to find another solution.

_The mission is more important than the individual._

But it’s right there and he knows what he has to do. It breaks his heart but... this isn’t the real Shiro. This isn’t the Shiro that took him under his wing at the Garrison, the Shiro that basically raised him after his father died. The Shiro he’d do anything to protect and who he knew would do the same for him.

_The mission is more important than the individual._

He kept repeating it, as if the morbid mantra would give him the strength to do what he needed to do. Sacrificing Shiro made sense, logically. Keith knew one of them was needed to keep Voltron going, and that Shiro was out of the question. Because the Shiro he was desperately clutching at as if he was the only thing keeping him from falling and not the other way around wasn’t the real Shiro. This was the only explanation.

Keith took a deep breath, and looked down at Takashi Shirogane for the last time. His brother, his friend, his teammate.

But this wasn’t really him. This was the man who scarred his face, who yelled at Lance, who Keith was sure wasn’t the real one.

This was the only way Keith could do it. To make this Shiro and the other different from each other. He knew they probably were. There were hundreds of Shiros encased in cylinders. This Shiro had to be one of them too. But there was still the lurking fear that this was the real Shiro.

And if this was a clone of Shiro, he was still Shiro, in a way.

”I’m sorry.” He whispered, before finally letting go. The body fell, and Keith forced himself to look away.

He summoned his bayard and began to climb, trying desperately not to let the tears fall. He climbed back up to stable ground, walked to the mouth of the cave, and back to Black. Only once inside the lion did he allowed himself to curl into a ball and cry.

When Keith opened him eyes, he was no longer in the Black Lion. He was sitting on what seemed to be nothing, and surrounded by stars.

He let out a yell of confusion, and leapt to his feet. He pulled his bayard out and willed it to transform into a sword. A figure shimmered into existence a few feet away.

It was Shiro.

”Keith.”

”...Shiro.”

Shiro sighed. “Look, I know you’re suspicious of me. I would be too if I were in your shoes. But the Shiro you fought was a clone, controlled by Haggar.”

”A clone? And he’s been a clone since you went missing the second time?”

”Yes. I think Haggar has been making clones of me ever since I was captured the first time.”

”What is this place? How are you here? Why are you here? Why am I here?”

”This is another realm. It’s called the Astral Plane. It’s connected to the lions. I’m not entirely sure how it works yet. As to why I’m here... after the fight with Zarkon, I just woke up here. I’d been here before, but it was always temporary. This time, my physical form was gone. My body couldn’t take the stress. I don’t know what happened to it, but my consciousness was here, preserved in the Black Lion.”

”You mean...”

”I died, Keith.” 

Keith took a moment to process the words.

Shiro couldn’t be dead.

He couldn’t be dead.

He couldn’t.

Shiro couldn’t be dead.

He was _Shiro,_ who’s always been there for him.

Keith fell to his knees as another choked sob ripped itself from his throat. Shiro kneeled in front of him and rested a hand on his shoulder.

”Keith. I know you’re hurting and I don’t want to make you do this. But you have to get back to your team. They need you. You’ll have time to grieve later.”

Keith looked up. “How do I get there fast enough?”

”You need to strengthen your bond with the Black Lion to unlock his special abilities.”

”But I don’t have time for that!”

”See through the lion’s eyes. See your team.”

~

The battle was over. Lotor was gone. Lotron, (as Lance had taken to calling it), was gone. The castle... the castle was gone too. It was hard to think about, they’d lost so much in such a short time.

Lance landed his lion on a floating rock with everyone else, and stumbled out to find he was the first one there. He was exhausted but willing to keep going, just a little longer, if only to support everyone else. Allura was definitely hurting. It’s every day your space prince boyfriend goes insane and tries to kill you and your friends after you find out he’s been regularly having people killed for centuries. And Keith, who hadn’t mentioned Shiro at all. Lance knew that if Shiro was okay Keith would’ve informed them about it, but there was still a tiny part of him that hoped Keith had just forgotten to mention it, no matter how unlikely.

Pidge was the next one to come out of their lion. They had their glowing space puffballs floating around them, probably more for moral support than anything else. Then Hunk. Romelle and Coran. Followed by Allura, whose eyes were rimmed with red. Krolia and Keith’s wolf, followed at last by Keith himself, who wasn’t wearing his helmet and who kept his head down.

”Keith...” Lance begun, pulling off his helmet and tucking it under his arm. “What happened with Shiro?”

Keith lifted his head up. A new scar decorated his cheek. “The... the Shiro that’s been with us since just after I became the black paladin the first time was a clone. He was created by Haggar. She could control him, that’s why he did the things he did.”

”Okay. So, where’s the real Shiro?” Hunk asked.

”I... um.” Keith swallowed, looking around at them. Pidge let out an audible gasp and covered their mouth with their hand, eyes starting to glimmer with tears. Lance frouned slightly, confused. What conclusion had they possibly drawn from a few words? Lance refocused his gaze on Keith, who he could tell was now also struggling not to cry. 

_No._

“Shiro... Shiro’s dead.”

”No!” The scream came from Pidge. “How can you know? How can you be sure?”

”I talked to him. He was in this place called the Astral Plane. He exists there the way King Alfor existed in the castle.”

Lance wrapped his arm around Pidge. They deflated, and leaned into him.

The pieces of the puzzle clicked together.

”He tried to talk to me.” Lance whispered. 

“What?” Allura looked at him.

”He tried to talk to me in the Astral Plane. When we went there on Olkarion. He called out to me, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Then later, I tried to talk to the clone and he didn’t remember going into the Astral Plane at all.” Lance started sobbing. He kept trying to get words out, but it was no use. “If I’d noticed... if... I could’ve... I-”

”Lance.” It was Keith. “There’s nothing you could’ve done. Shiro was already dead at that point. You shouldn’t beat yourself up about it.”

”Yeah... but I might’ve known about the clone earlier. Maybe then things would’ve turned out differently.”

”We can’t waste time on what could’ve happened. Right now, we need to find out what we’re doing next.” Allura said. “We can’t keep going with just the lions, we-“

”Allura.” Hunk cut in. “Can’t that wait? We’re all exhausted, stressed, and grieving. We need a while to get back on our feet.”

”I suppose it can.”

Hunk wrapped one arm around Lance and Pidge, the other around Keith and Allura, and pulled them all into a hug. Lance didn’t know how long they stayed like that, but eventually they sunk to the ground. Five paladins, five kids, really. All crying. All mourning the loss of someone who’d held them all together. Who’d been patient and kind to all of them. Who’d been an amazing leader. Who they’d all loved. Who they all still loved. But who wasn’t with them anymore.

They all mourned the death of Takashi Shirogane.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah... so basically I spent the days after season six screaming, crying, calling my friends, sitting and staring into space while trying to process everything, and lying in bed with actual tears running down my face while wondering what my life has come to.
> 
> Then my brain decided it’d be fun to go into a bout of depression. 
> 
> Ergo, not much writing has been getting done. But somehow I wrote this. Maybe I decided I hadn’t suffered enough yet.


End file.
